It's Throwback Thursday - And I've got a good one for you...
I was recently digging through a crate of old cassette tapes and found this little nugget - a tape I had recorded many many years ago, recorded on a little boombox that was just sitting onstage -
So right now I'd like to throw it back to a late summer night in 1979...
The scene: a hot, cramped little bar called Mother's, in Kent, Ohio. The band was called I-tal.
I was 21 and had been hanging around with the band for about a year at that point, basically following them from place to place, and they would allow me to jam with them on percussion. I was kind of like a stray cat they had fed once and after that I just kept coming back, because I knew I could get my musical handout. This particular night, I was in my usual spot, which was either off to the side of the stage, or in this particular case, tucked in a corner on the floor just in front of the keyboards. It didn't matter to me - I just wanted to play. We were a couple songs into the second set and just as Papa Dave (Smeltz) was about to start the next song, Ellie (keyboards) hollers, "Carlos! Come on get kinky!" Now, in any other setting, that might mean something totally different, but in this particular case it meant they were about to play "Kinky Reggae", and she was calling me up to come and sing backups! (you can actually hear that moment on the tape) Needless to say, I wasted no time, and that night was my official vocal debut with the band. Not long after that I was made a permanent member, and the rest, as they say, was history. If you there during those times, I'm sure you remember all the good times we had, at Peabody's, Pirates Cove, The Agora, Coventry Street Fair, Hessler Street Fair, and all of the college towns and far-flung places we'd travel to and bring the Roots Rock Reggae vibes. What a time...
If you got stories, I'd love to hear 'em. And be sure to thank Papa Davey for pioneering Cleveland Reggae in a Rock-n-Roll town.
